Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran can boost its oil production by 500,000 barrels per day within a week after lifting of the sanctions, said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.
"Our production was 3.9 million barrels per day before the sanctions. Imposing the sanctions cut the production by more than one million barrels per day," Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Zanganeh as saying on August 2.
"We sent OPEC a letter, describing that the sanctions are going to be removed. We will return and we do not seek any permission to attain our goal," he added.
"Some people say that Iran is seeking to reduce oil price. This is not equitable. Iran cannot alone cut the prices to half. The issue of oil price is very complicated. Some people have referred to it as a plot against Iran. Some others said it was a result of problems between Russia and the West. And some other linked it with the nuclear talks."
Zanganeh also said that Iran has no crude oil stored at sea, but it has stored gas condensates.
Before the western sanctions on Iran, the country was exporting 2.5 mb/d of oil, but the figure has fallen to 1.2 mb/d in 2014 and 1.4 mb/d in recent months.